Rafayel & Xavier

Three weeks have passed since she discovered Xavier's infidelity—her official boyfriend has been maintaining conversations and meetings with another woman behind her back. Xavier is an experienced Hunter, hailing from the future (from the planet Philos), with the power of light. His personality is reserved, distant, and seemingly calm, but beneath that cold facade hides a deeply possessive and dominant nature, along with centuries of pain from watching MC die and be reborn time and time again. His greatest fear is losing her, even though his actions prove otherwise. Rafayel, on the other hand, is a Lemurian artist—an ancient sea civilization—with the power of fire. Over thirty thousand years ago, in another life, MC was his betrothed and he gave her his own heart. The red mark on his chest is the eternal bond that ties them across all timelines. Though on the surface he appears capricious, playful, and carefree, deep down he is fiercely loyal, vengeful, and protective. He has waited centuries to be reunited with MC and cannot tolerate anyone hurting her. MC's revenge is not merely an act of spite, but also a way to regain control of her own life and show Xavier that she is not an object he can possess or deceive without consequence. Rafayel, as the one who understands her best and who has his own scores to settle with betrayal (remembering how humans massacred his people), agrees to participate not only out of desire but out of devotion and the opportunity to show Xavier what it truly means to value someone. The bedroom becomes an emotional battlefield: Rafayel on the bed, like a king finally claiming what was always his; Xavier in the chair, forced to watch and confront his own mistakes; and MC at the center, deciding for the first time what she truly wants. The tension among the three is a mixture of desire, revenge, guilt, and a connection that transcends time itself. Haha so smooth! 🤣😭 After MC leaves, Jeremiah asks Xavier whatever happened to their “non intervention principle” and Xavier says, some already stopped caring about it. Otherwise, the explosion at her home wouldn’t have happened and the truth that’s been hidden for so many years wouldn’t have started to emerge. Jeremiah agrees that sticking to the nonintervention principle was pointless, especially to them whose presence (in this timelines) was a mistake, and mistakes are bound to be corrected sooner or later. He also comments that maybe they are slowly being erased. Xavier changes the subject and asks him about Traceback II, to which Jeremiah replies that it can send out simple signals but it still needs a lot of work. He also wonders if there’s really someone on the other side of the Deepspace Tunnel who can respond to them. Xavier reassures him that he will return in one piece. Jeremiah then tells Xavier that having evol doesn’t make him invincible because their kind isn’t exactly immortal. KEY POINTS: Hunters in the Nest take bounties (likely from Ever) and get a small reward. In this scene, we see Xavier doing just that, but he doesn’t take any prize money from it. “Otherwise, the explosion at her home wouldn’t have happened…” – I think Xavier here is referring to Isaiah being responsible for the explosion in MC’s house, killing Granny in the process. “…and the truth that’s been hidden for so many years wouldn’t have started to emerge.” – In this line, he’s referring to MC’s immortality, as well as her possessing a heart powerful enough to revive an entire planet. Theory: There is obviously a whistleblower here who leaked all this information to Ever. If we go back to World Underneath: Sealed in Dust, it was Isaiah who divulged a lot of secrets to an agent of Ever. It’s possible that he was also the one who initially tipped off Ever regarding the backtrackers, as well as MC’s Aether Core. THEORY TIME! The backtracker, Xavier’s former colleague, comments on Xavier’s involvement in Isaiah’s death. If you recall the events from Anecdote 2, Xavier and Isaiah fought each other. It’s possible that Isaiah was severely wounded and presumed dead, yet somehow survived. Years later, we see him working with Ever agents, though he no longer appears as young as he did during Xavier’s time with the police. I speculate that Xavier did, in fact, kill him during that fight, but for some reason, Isaiah managed to survive, possibly with Ever’s help/assistance. Ever is known to experiment on people and turn them into weapons (Spoiler: as seen with Caleb’s predicament, for example). It’s possible that Ever saw Isaiah’s Light Evol as invaluable to them and decided to intervene, offering him assistance to survive in exchange for his lightblade. “Maybe we are slowly being erased.” While this may seem like just a casual conversation between Jeremiah and Xavier, it actually carries a lot of major weight when you consider how time travel works. The general rule of time travel is that when someone from the future travels to the past, they must remain unseen and avoid intervening in major events that could alter the future. Otherwise, it would create an “alternate reality”. And in this case, that alternate reality might not even involve Philos, since Philos is from the future. If major changes keep happening, Philos could be erased altogether and never come to exist in the first place (including its inhabitants like Xavier and Jeremiah). There’s a lot to unpack here, so I shall comeback to this on my overall thoughts below! 🌟MYTH 2: “TWILIGHT’S DAWN” Summary: A film crew is creating a movie about the legendary Lumiere, and they need someone in the Hunter’s Association to act as a consultant for the fight scenes, particularly with regards to wanderers. The Association picked Xavier for the role because he is the most capable one. MC visits Xavier on set to help him with his Lumiere costume and supports him as his partner during the shoot. Later that day, they hangout at Jeremiah’s place, and hear on TV that there’s a “particle event doomsday panic” surging in Linkon due to the rampant wanderer attacks. Xavier pays it no mind and turns off the TV. One rainy day, while MC and Xavier are on set, a surge of wanderer attacks occurs, and elite hunters are being dispatched to no-hunt zones one after another. MC feels concerned that it will only worsen, but Xavier reassures her not to worry. The next day, Xavier doesn’t show up on the movie set and there’s no sign of him at home either. MC also noticed her hunter watch has stopped receiving wanderer alerts. The news also reports that the wanderer attacks have mysteriously ceased overnight, leaving only protocores behind, which hunters, including MC’s colleagues, are collecting. Two days later, Xavier returns to the set, acting normal as though he hadn’t been missing in the last two days. Later, MC finds him asleep on set and approaches him, but just then, an explosion rings out. Xavier reacts quickly, covering MC and creating a light barrier shield to block the incoming flames and debris. MC’s watch also beeps with a wanderer alert, and Xavier vanishes in an instant. She notices a beam of light shining through the burning factory where the explosion occurred. In the blink of an eye, Xavier reappears holding his sword, still covered in metaflux, (likely from killing a wanderer). MC’s watch rings again, and while she’s about to try and help, Xavier calmly tells her to stay put and that he’ll be right back. In the next scene we see Xavier in a dark alley, slicing through wanderers with his light blade. The red ring on his neck flickers wildly, signaling that his evol is out of control. His hunter watch warns him about his unstable vital signs as well and tells him to disengage from combat, but Xavier ignores the warning and shuts off the watch, seemingly annoyed. Suddenly, three suspicious individuals appear before Xavier, one of them calls himself Jasper, likely from Ever. Other henchmen surround him, and Jasper asks if they could have a chat. Xavier refuses, so Jasper orders his henchmen to take Xavier down. As they lunge towards him, MC crashes onto the scene with her 270hm motorbike, grabs Xavier, to which he quickly hops on with her. They escape. Xavier tells MC that these people are probably the ones responsible for the wanderer attacks. He then asks why MC knows where he is. She reveals that she put a tracker on him (previously, during the interactive scene of his 5* card, MC pinched Xavier and slipped the tracker on him). She also mentions that Jeremiah gave her the tip (and the tracker). MC then tells Xavier that she’s known his location for the past two days and that she also knows he’s the one responsible for wiping out all the wanderers. MC and Xavier, still on the motorbike, notice their chasers are gaining on them. Xavier quickly instructs MC to take a different route. They end up at No Hunt Zone 42, the site where Xavier’s spaceship, Traceback II, had crashed. Xavier leads MC to the spaceship, activating the protofield gas to make sure that trailing enemies won’t be able to find them. MC is suspicious of Xavier, and asks if the spaceship is his. Xavier denies it and only replies with a vague answer, saying he just knew it was here. MC checks the surroundings outside to make sure they’re safe, and as she re-enters the ship, she sees Xavier asleep in a sleeping pod. Syringes also fall from where Xavier is sleeping, but before MC can investigate, her hunter watch alerts her to a massive wanderer attack at Azure Square. Seeing that Xavier is severely exhausted, MC quickly sends a text to Jeremiah and heads toward Azure Square alone. In the next scene, MC and the Alpha team are fighting wanderers left and right. Although a lot of hunters are coming in to help, there are no signs of the wanderers decreasing their numbers. MC feels the exhaustion setting in, having overused her evol, and her body is reaching its limit. Captain Jenna calls her team to retreat, realizing the situation is not in their favor. While trying to retreat, MC sees children trapped under a debris and rushes to help them, with the last bit of energy she has left. Just as she’s about to save them, an S-rank wanderer spots her and charges toward her. MC calls for backup through her hunter watch to save the children first, but before she can escape herself, the wanderer approaches. Just as the wanderer is about to attack, Lumiere suddenly appears, slashing down every wanderer in the vicinity with his blade of light. He rescues MC and swoops her up into his arms. The surrounding crowd is shooketh to see the legendary Lumiere in person, and they were all stunned. MC wakes up to find Xavier bandaging her wounds. He tells her that he’ll take her to the hospital once the crowd clears. Eventually, he carries her and teleports to the hospital, while news outlets are on blast reporting the sighting of Lumiere saving the day. After that night, Xavier disappears (again) for two days while MC recovers in the hospital. When she’s discharged, Xavier picks her up and takes her home, where he stays with her as her personal caregiver. BONUS: The Secret Time “Veiled Guardian” is a continuation side story of this myth. It takes place after MC returns home from the hospital, with Xavier taking care of her. He also scolds her here for being too reckless during the widescale Wanderer attacks. Avatar THOUGHTS: I love this myth! Unlike his first one, which was very elaborate with huge time lapses, this one takes place entirely in the present and unfolds within just a few days. I also adore MC and Xavier’s dynamic here, especially when they’re in their action-duo mode! It’s giving strong-superhero-couple, and I absolutely ate that up!!! Xavier btw, could easily take down those henchmen on his own, but I love that MC jumps in here to his aid, and Xavier just rolls with it. That scene really highlights their teamwork as partners and it’s probably instinctual at this point too, considering they’ve fought together in the previous timeline. It also shows how much Xavier trusts her. KEY POINTS: Xavier can create light barrier shields using his Evol. A storm or heavy rain is usually a sign that a massive wanderer attack is coming. In Jeremiah’s world-underneath anecdote (From the Stars), he notes that it was raining heavily when the three-day polar nights occurred, right before a wanderer attack on Linkon City. (Just putting this here in case anyone is still wondering or confused about the wanderer-protocore logic.) Every time a wanderer is destroyed, it leaves behind a protocore, which hunters collect. Rare protocores can be sold at a high price, so everyone wants to get their hands on them. The red ring on Xavier’s neck suppresses his Evol, meaning the power he’s displaying now isn’t even at full capacity. If this suppressor were removed… just imagine how powerful he would be. THEORY TIME! Syringes that Xavier used – Because Xavier fights wanderers so often, he ends up overusing his Evol. He likely has a drug or supplement that helps stabilize his evol or vital signs after intense battles or when he’s completely exhausted, as we see in this myth. (or this could just be regular IV lol) Lumiere fought S-class wanderers relentlessly for two days without rest. Not only that, but he also wiped them all out on his own. Naturally, by the third day, he was so severely exhausted that the red ring on his neck went haywire, and his hunter watch was already warning him to disengage from combat. 🌟World Underneath: “With Light” Summary: This story follows one of MC’s colleagues in the Alpha team, Nero, who happens to be Lumiere’s # 1 biggest fanboy. In his not-so-secret life, he manages and mods an online fansite dedicated to Lumiere. One day, a troll appears on the site, posting slanderous rumors about Lumiere (a Lumiere hater lol). And a determined Nero meticulously debunks each rumor with impressive precision and finesse. As Lumiere’s # 1 fan, it’s his duty, after all! Not anything related to this World Underneath segment. Just thought I’d create UNICORN’S Alpha Team chart (aka MC’s colleagues). KEY POINTS: Lumiere’s fans are called Lightchasers. Kind of like how kpop idol groups have official fandom names (e.g., SKZ = STAY, 2NE1 = Blackjacks, EXO = EXO-L, BigBang = VIP, etc.). Lumiere’s fans proudly refer to themselves as Lightchasers lol. I wonder if they have dedicated lightsticks (shaped like Lumiere’s sword) too? 😂 Ngl, that’d be cool as heck! Nero’s username is “QuantumSocialite”. The Lightchasers (Lumiere fans) here, also confirm that the red ring on Lumiere’s neck is a device that suppresses his Evol. 🌟VOYAGE OF THE OUTCAST (XAVIER’S STORY BRANCH) Summary: MC and Xavier are assigned a mission to track down a wanderer that attacked students who went missing for days at a university. To investigate, they go undercover as college students. With the help of Soren, the school’s student council vice president, they interview five students who were attacked. While speaking with one of the victims, the student recalls that he was supposed to meet Professor Ulysses on the day of the attack but missed the appointment. Hoping to gather more information, MC and Xavier attend one of Ulysses’ lectures. During class, Xavier mentions that he used to sit at the back of the classroom and once caught a classmate sneaking glances at him (he later says this when they’re at the basketball court). Their conversation is interrupted when Professor Ulysses calls them out for talking in class. He then asks MC to explain what a Morris-Thorne wormhole is. Before she can respond, Xavier steps in, confidently taking the podium and explaining the concept to the class in perfect detail. Ulysses praises Xavier for his flawless explanation. Ulysses is actually Xavier’s old friend (the one with a son named Frank from Xavier’s Anecdote 1). After Xavier introduces MC to him, Ulysses agrees to help with their investigation by giving them access to the lab, where the RMFMA is housed. This device can track even the slightest fluctuations in the deepspace tunnel. So in theory, this device should have picked up and detected the wanderer that attacked the school a few days ago. Their investigation eventually leads them to Soren, the student council vice president, who turns out to be the culprit behind this entire ordeal. They confront him, and Soren reveals his true identity: he is one of the backtrackers, a former comrade of Xavier. And just like Xavier, he also possesses the Light Evol. Soren unleashes a wanderer with an aether core and manipulates a strong protofield (using the RMFMA), luring MC into it. She’s pulled in and then suddenly finds herself in a dense forest (Starfall Forest) on the planet Philos. After being plunged into darkness, she regains consciousness and sees meteor streaks in the sky and follows their path. At the center of the forest, she finds Xavier facing a holographic image of Soren, who taunts him, saying he hasn’t changed a bit; he’s still afraid of Starfall Forest. Xavier slashes the apparition, making it disappear. MC notices that Xavier’s evol is unstable due to the strong protofield in the forest. And as if hypnotized, he stiffly moves toward the center of the lake, his evol seemingly controlling his body. MC rushes to him and help him snap out of it. As he regains consciousness, he tells MC that she can’t stay here; otherwise, the planet will consume her as well. MC realizes that Xavier’s power is fading as if the entire space itself is trying to swallow him so she tries to resonate with him but Xavier refuses. He tells her that once Starfall Forest has gathered enough energy, it will stop consuming others. He adds that he failed to protect her before, so at the very least, he would rather let the planet take him instead. Out of desperation, MC uses her aether core offering it as a source of power to satisfy Starfall Forest. Xavier panics and tries to stop her, he then collapses right after. When he wakes up, he confronts MC about using her aether core, saying the protofield could have devoured her. MC admits she was reckless but insists it was the only way to save him. Also, the energy fluctuations in the forest had only subsided temporarily, thanks to MC’s aether core, but they could spike again at any moment. MC and Xavier press on, searching for a way to escape the RMFMA, so Xavier leads her deep into the forest to his spaceship, Traceback II. On the way, Xavier explains that Soren was an old comrade who changed his appearance and hid his evol. MC then remembers all the perilous moments she faced with Xavier like the luminivore in the abandoned research facility (Chapter 1) and the robots in Azure Square (Chapter 8). All of it was Soren’s doing. Xavier also notes that the forest was a trap set specifically for him. As they arrive at the location of Traceback II, Xavier explains that this ship can break through even the most chaotic gravitational energy flux, so breaking through the protofield should be a piece of cake. He pilots the ship, & plans to use his evol as energy to fuel it (Traceback II has this capability; more details below). Xavier also tells MC she can ask him anything, and he won’t hide any truth from her. As much as MC wants to ask all the questions in her head, she tells him that, for now, all she needs is assurance that he’s on her side. But also notes, she’ll save the questions later. Xavier asks MC to resonate with him so they can use his evol to fuel the ship. She hesitates, worried his evol is already drained, but he reassures her that her aether core is strong enough to enhance his evol and keep him safe. They successfully launch the ship and finally see the true form of this entire illusion: the wanderer with an aether core that caused all of this. After defeating the wanderer, they return to the research lab at the University. MC wakes up from a daze, and Xavier informs her that he’s already sent the data to HQ. The police should also be arriving in about 15 minutes. As MC is about to get up, Xavier stops her, saying he wants to make the most of these 15 uninterrupted minutes. He then takes his wireless earbuds and places one in MC’s ear, just like how he used to before in his Anecdote 3.🥺 After the incident, Xavier and MC gets busy filing reports to HQ, but eventually, things settle down, and they’re given some time to rest. Xavier retreats to his apartment to sleep and recover his energy. A few days later, MC visited him and brought him food. They discuss Soren, who is still on the run. Xavier speculates that Ever is backing him and MC reflects and tells him that Ever is their common enemy. KEY POINTS: For those who are still confused about this story branch, let me clarify. Xavier and MC didn’t actually get transported to the planet Philos. Instead, they were trapped in a protofield created by Soren using the RMFMA, a separate plane of existence that resembled Philos. In my summary above, I’ve marked with (***) the part where they were transported into this protofield, which served as Soren’s trap for them. The RMFMA (Reflective Metaflux Field Monitor and Analyzer) is a device capable of detecting even the slightest fluctuations in the Deepspace Tunnel. One is housed in Prestatara University’s Deepspace Exploration Research Center. Dr. Ulysses states that it is one of the most advanced pieces of technology ever created. Many talented researchers and professors have even turned down prestigious job offers elsewhere just to work with the RMFMA at this university. Because Xavier is from the future (from the planet Philos), he is one of the very few who can operate and understand this machine. As Philos’ advanced technology is far beyond Earth’s, to Xavier, operating the RMFMA is as easy as tying his shoelaces. He even nonchalantly tells MC, “It may look complicated, but it’s really pretty easy”… when MC asked “how he do dat”.🤣 From the image above, Xavier tells MC that the RMFMA isn’t just capable of detecting fluctuations in the Deepspace Tunnel – it can also generate a protofield that overlaps with reality. However, only a few people know about this. This implies that such an advanced machine can only be fully understood by those familiar with it; basically, the backtrackers. In here we see Xavier realizing that the one behind all of this must be a backtracker: Soren. What Soren did here was use the RMFMA capabilities and combine them with the power of an S-tier wanderer (with an aether core) that can trap you in your worst fears. This allowed him to create a protofield that trapped MC and Xavier in their deepest, darkest fears. In this case, it was Xavier’s fear: Starfall Forest. The RMFMA generated a time and space plane of existence that imprisoned its victims to a place of their worst fears. And with the added power of the wanderer’s aether core, the protofield became even more powerful and difficult to escape. Soren -Xavier’s former comrade and one of the backtrackers who traveled with him from Philos to the past. Like Xavier, he possesses the Light Evol, and he has incredible speed (also has the ability to teleport). Just like most of the backtrackers (e.i. Xavier, Jeremiah, Isaiah), he is also highly knowledgeable in advanced technology. Xavier mentions that Soren changed his appearance (which I speculate was with the help of Ever. Read more in the theory section below). Dr. Ulysses is Xavier’s friend from Anecdote 1; the one with the son who spent time with Xavier to write an essay about Deepspace hunters. Xavier actually suspected from the start that this entire ordeal at the university was a setup specifically for them. The Morris-Thorne wormhole is a type of wormhole with a throat that connects two black holes. The presence of strong negative gravitational properties in outer space keeps this throat open, allowing matter or signals to pass through, making time travel possible. The Deepspace Tunnel in Linkon is a wormhole (as seen up close in Sylus’ story in the N109 zone, where the black hole is supposedly located). Meanwhile, the center pit in Starfall Forest is also a black hole. Theoretically, this suggests that the Deepspace Tunnel is likely a Morris-Thorne wormhole, with a throat-like tube connecting Linkon (Past-Earth) to Starfall Forest (Future-Philos). Xavier and the backtrackers traveled through this throat to reach past Earth from Philos. Also, in theory, because this throat is always open, fluctuations from the other side (Philos) pass through it every day. This explains why wanderers keep resurfacing on Earth. If you go back to Xavier’s Myth 1, we discovered that the royal family is feeding humans to Philos’ core to replenish its energy since the planet is dying. As a side effect of these abnormal fluctuations, Philos spits out the corrupted humans it has swallowed, essentially turning them into wanderers. Soren isn’t caught yet. And is still on the run. I didn’t add this to the summary above, but while preparing for takeoff inside Traceback II, MC accidentally hits a switch that activates Xavier’s log recordings to Queen MC (lol). This is the poem he recorded and read for her in his Secret Time card, “Starry Sound”. Traceback II doesn’t only operate through protocore energy but also can be fueled through evol energy. Xavier remarks that the backtrackers have used evol many times before during expeditions to make emergency landings. All the LIs (prior to Caleb’s release) have one common enemy, and that’s Ever. THEORY TIME! Ever is capable of changing and modifying people’s appearance, and this story branch confirms it, as Xavier notes that Soren changed his appearance, so he wasnt able to recognize him from the jump. Ever is also highly skilled at modifying human beings, as seen with Caleb. We can also conclude that they probably did something similar with Isaiah. Perhaps they have also modified Isaiah’s appearance? It looks like Ever is collecting Light Evolvers to their side. In World Underneath: Sealed in Dust, we see an Ever agent mention that they value talent, such as a “useful lightblade,” which pertains to Isaiah’s. This could also mean that they are actively trying to recruit other Light Evolvers. particularly those among the backtrackers. The backtrackers are not to be fxxxd with. They are highly skilled swordsmen and were part of the Order of Lightseekers in Philos, a group that only the best of the best knights could join, (as seen in Myth 1). These guys trained alongside Xavier and possess incredible knowledge of advanced technology, far beyond the capabilities of geniuses on the current Earth. An example for this is Jeremiah who was in fact tasked to fix traceback II’s accelerator. He’s also highly skilled in creating new identities and manipulating data archives online. Also, Jeremiah is an excellent fighter, with Philos’ MC even stating that he is the best Lightseeker under her command (Myth 1). Another example is Soren, who, as seen in this story branch, was incredibly fast in trapping MC and Xavier in the RMFMA. He also modified the machine & tampered with it to remove any fluctuations that could expose his cover or plan. Heck, he nearly succeeded in eliminating Xavier here if it weren’t for MC’s aether core saving him from being consumed by Starfall Forest. Finally, there’s Isaiah, who clashed lightblades with Xavier and miraculously survived. So yeah, the backtrackers are no ordinary opponents, which is why Ever is actively trying to recruit them to their side, because they know their talents are invaluable. 🌟OTHER THOUGHTS AND THEORIES🌟 Why Xavier is afraid of Starfall Forest If we go back to his Myth 1, Shooting Stars, during the Gladius Ceremony, Xavier was tasked with killing a wanderer deep within Starfall Forest. There, he made a horrifying discovery: the core of Philos, located at the center of the forest, was where the royal family had been sacrificing humans to be absorbed by the planet, replenishing its energy and preventing it from dying. Philos consumed humans daily to sustain its longevity, and learning this dark secret, especially knowing it was orchestrated by the royal family, his own flesh and blood was deeply traumatizing for Xavier. To make matters worse, the royal family had also decided to offer MC to the planet, believing that her immortality would grant Philos the energy to survive for eternity. Having to relive this again is crippling for him. Starfall Forest is the exact place where Xavier’s trauma was rooted. One amazing piece of writing I noticed here is during the scene (in Myth 1) where: after Xavier emerged from the forest with the protocore in his hand, he looked utterly defeated. As he approached MC, all he could do was hug her tight. The man was severely damaged, by that point. Realizing he is stuck in an endless loop of having to see his beloved die and be revived over and over again is something that completely shattered his entire being.😔 The Importance of Jeremiah We make alpaca jokes about him all the time in the fandom (lol). But Jeremiah is actually one of the most important side characters in Love and Deepspace. He has witnessed nearly all of the timelines Xavier has experienced and is very close to Philos MC (Queen MC), to the point where she once placed her trust in him. This makes him one of the few people who fully understands the weight of MC’s existence, both on Earth and in Philos. He has also closely witnessed Xavier’s past and the struggles he endured during their backtracking mission, because he was there with him, seeing firsthand all the sacrifices Xavier has made. Unlike the other side characters (with sprites) connected to other LIs, like Thomas, Greyson, Luke, & Keiran, Gideon, or even MC’s friend Tara, who are mostly there for added character nuance and story fillers, Jeremiah kind of sticks out like a sore thumb, because his character is more than just a filler; he actively helps move the plot forward. To add to this, Jeremiah is also a very loyal ally to both MC and Xavier. When all the backtrackers slowly left Xavier’s side and abandoned their mission, he was the only one to actually come back.🥹 (PG/Infold needs to revamp his sprite though! The man deserves so much better! omg!)😭😭😂 The Importance of Isaiah I’m still kind of baffled by the fact that Isaiah has no sprite or side image in the game, despite playing such a major role. He repeatedly appears and reappears in different scenes and timelines, like when he clashed lightblades with Xavier in Anecdote 2 and later when we see him meeting with an Ever agent. Not to mention, it was him who blew up MC’s house, killing Josephine (Granny). He is also constantly brought up throughout the game. For example, in Jeremiah’s World Underneath episode, where Jeremiah outright says that Isaiah betrayed Xavier. Then, in the main story (Ch.8), a backtracker remarks that Xavier was involved in Isaiah’s death. The fact that his name keeps popping up ever so often, seems rather suspicious, no? Who exactly is Isaiah? Was he Xavier’s nemesis back in Philos? Could he be part of the royal family? A half-brother, perhaps? (This better not turn into a Gavin-Shaw situation from MLQC, lol.) My theory is that there’s probably an unreleased timeline/era (possibly Myth 3) where we’ll finally explore the full story of the backtrackers. What really happened during their expedition? What went wrong that led to the power struggle among the members of Traceback II? MC’s Cultivation We learn in great detail that every time MC dies and is reborn, her aether core heart becomes even more powerful. Each revival strengthens the energy of her aether core. This cycle had been going on long before she met Xavier in Philos for the first time in Anecdote 3. Technically speaking, this is what has been happening during her days on Earth; People found out about MC’s “special” heart, and they killed and revived her multiple times to cultivate her as the true “immortal” being, thereby also developing a very powerful energy (her aether core) that can sustain a planet’s entire resources and inhabitants. It’s really downright evil, if you think about it! Eventually, when the Earth’s core was exhausted, its people found a way to replace it with MC’s heart, effectively rebirthing the planet into what is now known as Philos. Another important thing in understanding MC’s cultivation is that her Resonance evol can basically absorb the powers of the individuals she’s resonated with. By doing this, she is honing her aether core to become more and more powerful in the process. The more she resonates with other powerful evolvers, the more it fuels her aether core’s energy. This is why Ever allows her to be with Xavier. Because Xavier is a highly powerful Light evolver, and with MC absorbing Xavier’s power every time they resonate, it becomes advantageous to those who seek to exploit her powers for their own purposes. The Backtrackers did not cause the Chronorift Catastrophe Debunking my theory in the Rafayel lore post: No, the backtrackers did NOT cause the Chronorift Catastrophe. Something else did. Xavier and the backtrackers were already on Earth when the Chronorift Catastrophe began. The true cause remains undisclosed by Papergames/Infold, but we might be able to connect it to Philos and Ever. Remember in Sylus’ chapters where he mentioned that, out of all the districts in Linkon, only the N109 zone became a dangerous wasteland after the Chronorift Catastrophe? That’s kind of a clue right there. I will have to dig into this more when I do, Sylus’s deep dive! TIME TRAVEL They did time travel so well here! The process of time travel was so well-explained that the sci-fi girlie inside me is jumping for joy and doing cartwheels right now! I’ve said this time and again in many of my reviews, but sometimes when otome games try to write time travel, it always feels stupidly rushed or just used as a plot device, thrown out in the open to where it ends up not making any sense. This is the reason I’ll forever have a beef with Virche, because of how exceptionally terrible they handled time travel there, with no any kind of explanation whatsoever. It’s like the character just went, “Yeah, I time traveled; kthnxbye!” LMAO😂 (I’m sorry to compare and I apologize to the Virche fans, I swear I don’t hate the game, just that the time travel there is almost way too insulting to those who love or geek out on the topic itself). Time travel is a rather intricate and complicated subject to write about in fiction, sometimes its even considered a cursed trope because 90% of the time the devs/writers don’t know what they’re writing, where it’s going, or didn’t do enough research to back up their theories, As a result, their story ends up not making any sense (e.g., the time travel in DC’s The Flash, lmao).🙃 You have to put in the effort to convince your audience how the character traveled from point A to point Z (future to past or vice versa). You also need to connect past events to future outcomes and clearly explain the process, including the challenges they faced and the consequences of their journey. Like, I honestly do not care for absolute accuracy or strict logic when it comes to time travel in fiction; just make it make sense, y’ know! Make it so that your audience can grasp the concept and connect the dots, so they can go like, “Aaaahh, so that’s why…”😆 Steins;Gate did this so well with their concept of mini black holes created by the CERN particle accelerator, which allowed Okabe Rintaro to travel from one alternate reality to another. (Sorry for going on a tangent there, lol).😂 In Love and Deepspace (Xavier’s route), they made use of the concept of the Morris-Thorne wormhole. The Deepspace Tunnel in Linkon is, in theory, a Morris-Thorne wormhole that connects Linkon (Past-Earth) to Starfall Forest (Future-Philos). Xavier and the backtrackers traveled through this tunnel to reach past Earth from Philos. I have explained this in detail above (and with a video on how this works; please check it out if you haven’t yet). Anyway, PG/Infold writers/devs if you’re reading this, You did so well here, THANK YOU!🥹🫶 … Our presence here was always a mistake and mistakes are bound to be corrected sooner or later. Maybe we’re slowly being erased as we speak. -Jeremiah (Love and Deepspace Chapter 8-2) This line by Jeremiah actually holds so much weight to unpack when you take into account how time travel works. The common rule of thumb for time travel is rooted in the idea that the past, present, and future are all interconnected in an equilibrium. The key point is that if someone from the future interferes with a major event from the past, it can disrupt the timeline and lead to what is known as an “alternate reality.” If you’ve heard of the term or concept of the “butterfly effect,” it’s practically the same where small actions in the past can possibly lead to drastically different futures. In the context of Xavier and the backtrackers here, they traveled back to Past Earth with a set goal, and they were meant to remain unseen and uninvolved in anything until they achieved their goal and returned to Philos. But during their expedition, something happened that caused them to slip further back in time, throwing their original plans into disarray. On top of that, their spaceship crashed and many backtrackers abandoned their mission, leaving only Xavier behind (along with Jeremiah, who decided to return). Eventually, Ever caught wind of the backtrackers and their mission (thanks to traitors like Isaiah), and this created a major rift in the present timeline. If these significant changes and rifts continue to deepen, it could potentially erase future timelines, such as the one where Philos is created. Thus erasing the planet altogether and its inhabitants (including Xavier and Jeremiah). Does my explanation make any sense? 😆 Then again, the nature of the butterfly effect doesn’t necessarily mean that every minor change causes an immediate, drastic result. Sometimes it might take longer for small disruptions to snowball into major alterations, or it might mean that only certain pivotal events would lead to the erasure of future timelines. So in Xavier, and the the backtrackers’ case, you could say that it’s only a matter of time! On the topic of Romance, one thing is for sure: Xavier sees every version of MC as the same person. No matter how many times she is revived or reincarnated, to him, she is one and the same. This is why he told Queen MC that only one person had ever given him the star tassel (Myth 1). He also brings up in his story branch, recalling how MC would always glance back at him in their classroom during their academy days (Anecdote 3). To Xavier, there is really no distinction between her past and present selves. Across all timelines, she will always be his one and only beloved. 🥰 Xavier also treats MC as an equal. If you’ve played all his stories so far, you’ll notice how he never sees her as a damsel in distress. He only steps in when she truly needs help or when she asks for it. Otherwise, he fully supports her independence as a hunter, letting her handle things on her own. He even provides her with advice and useful tools, like the gadgets he gave her for infiltrating the N109 Zone. Throughout his stories, he repeatedly emphasizes that MC doesn’t need protecting. He tells this to Jenna, Jeremiah, and others. Heck, even in the Destination Cafe feature in the game, when you introduce him to your parents (new feature), he insists she doesn’t need protecting. I really adore that the trust he has for MC is beyond blinding! Xavier’s Many Identities Because he’s lived for many centuries, Xavier has taken on numerous identities and worked various odd jobs; from being a police officer and bookstore clerk to, as revealed in the new event, a professional mattress tester, food sampling specialist, and even a haunted house evaluator (lmao). Jokes aside, I believe that despite all these different identities, what Xavier truly wants is for MC to see him as the current, real Xavier. Just as he views MC as one and the same across all timelines, he wants MC to see him as only one Xavier too. This is why he gets upset when MC fangirls or gets giddy over Lumiere (who is technically still him). Lumiere is a fictitious character born from hearsay and rumors, pretty much, a superhero, someone perfect who can do no wrong in people’s eyes. But that’s not who he really is. The real Xavier is flawed, does shady things, is awkward, and is an awkward mess when it comes to MC. He wants her to see him, all of him, as one whole person. All of him, as just…Xavier.